The Black Dwarf is the first of the “Tales of My Landlord” series, which also includes The Bride of Lammermoor and The Heart of Midlothian. The third preliminary chapter depicts two horsemen arriving at the Wallace Inn in Gandercleugh, where one of the horsemen relates the tale. The story proper is set on the Scottish borders during the reign of Queen Anne. The Jacobite movement is in its infancy, but the inhabitants of this part of the country have enough to quarrel about without politics inciting them to it. Several families of high and low birth bear no good intentions to each other, and a weird, brooding dwarf, who wishes ill on all of humanity, seems to direct and perpetuate the mayhem from his lonely cottage on Mucklestane Moor. (tbragg)

How to claim a part, and "how it all works" here To find a section to record, simply look at point 5. below at the sections. All the ones without names beside them are "up for grabs." Click "Post reply" at the top left of the screen and tell us which section you would like to read (include the section number from the left-most column in the reader list, please). Read points 6. to 8. below for what to do before, during and after your recording.

Is there a deadline? We ask that you submit your recorded sections within 1-2 months of placing your claim. Please note that to be fair to the readers who have completed their sections in a timely way, if you haven't submitted your recording(s) after two months, your sections will automatically be re-opened for other readers to claim, unless you post in this thread to request an extension. Extensions will be granted at the discretion of the Book Coordinator. If you cannot do your section, for whatever reason, just let me know and it'll go back to the pool. There's no shame in this; we're all volunteers and things happen.Please do not sign up for more sections than you can complete within the two month deadline.

Please claim sections (the numbers in the first column below)! If this is your first recording, please let me know under which name or pseudonym you'd like to appear in the LibriVox catalogue. We can also link to a personal website/blog.

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Note: The magic window is sort of confusing because the chapters and the section numbers are off by one. Please make sure you do not mix the two numbers up!
You need the section number in the file name, but the Chapter number in the recording! END of recording

At the end of the book, say (in addition): "End of The Black Dwarf by Sir Walter Scott."

There should be 5 seconds silence at the end of the recording.

Please remember to check this thread frequently for updates!

AFTER recordingNeed noise-cleaning?
Listen to your file through headphones. If you can hear some constant background noise (hiss/buzz), you may want to clean it up a bit. The new (free) version 1.3.3. of Audacity has much improved noise-cleaning. See this LibriVox wiki page for a complete guide. Save files as
128 kbps MP3
blackdwarf_##_scott_128kb.mp3 (all lower-case) where ## is the section number (e.g. blackdwarf_01_scott_128kb.mp3)

Example ID3 V2 tags (just leave those blank!)

Please ignore tags for Genre and Track Number - these will be filled in automatically at the cataloguing stage.
Transfer of files (completed recordings) Please always post in this forum thread when you've sent a file. Also, post the length of the recording (file duration: mm:ss) together with the link.

I have noticed that there are two introductions to this book? We can then change the numbering so that it starts with 01, but it's not important and up to you.
I would also appreciate it if you could write your own summary for various reasons: We link to wikipedia anyway, their stuff is not PD, and as a listener I'd like to know what YOU found so interesting about the book that you absolutely had to record it We do have time with this until cataloging though, so there's no rush.

Other than that, let's stay here for a few days to see if we can find a DPL. Have fun!

BC - book coordinator, responsible for managing the readers and the Magic Window (MW). In a solo, that would be you
DPL - Dedicated Proof Listener, the first (but hopefully not only) person to listen to your recordings and give feedback, hopefully many PL OKs!

Tom,
I would prefer if you could post regularly in the thread. Nothing big needed, just so that I know something is going on. I don't get a notification if something is uploaded to my folder or if the Magic Window is changed. I only get a notification with a post in the thread - and I need to know when we're finished after all

Literary/technical question: The Project Gutenberg text actually switches the two Introductions around. Many old editions of Scott commit this careless error. The second Intro is Scott's own, from the 1831 edition of his collected works. The first Intro is "in character"; the fictional Jedidiah Cleishbotham here sets up the main story.

The text makes best sense with Scott's introduction coming first and Jedidiah's second. Can we so arrange them? Or must we adhere to the strict order of the Gutenberg text, even though it's wrong?

What you say makes sense, however I'd still prefer to adhere to the text.

We put a link to the text onto the catalog page, and people who read along may get confused if the first file starts somewhere in the middle of the book / the intros. And some of them may start writing complaint emails about this - let's keep those to an absolute minimum for the sake of the admin handling them.

You could add a short mention of the switched intros to the summary of course - there's nothing keeping people from listening to them in the appropriate order.